My Life as a Rhombus

by Varian Johnson

  Yeah, like a couple of fried egg rolls would solve all of my problems. I scooped the money from the table. “What do you want me to order for you? Moo Goo Gai Pan?”

  He shook his head as he headed down the hallway. “Nothing for me,” he said. “Jackie and I had an early dinner at Antonio’s.”

  Just fucking great. Dad and the Teeny Bopper have dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant, and I’m stuck eating dinner out of a paper carton.

  I placed the order, slumped into my chair, and thought back to my conversation with Ms. Gamble. I had no way of knowing if she ever acted on her threat. I guess at this point, it didn’t matter. Sarah was having her baby, and more than likely, I was going to USC.

  I thought about calling Gail or Sarah for encouragement, but instead found my finger hitting the redial button.

  “China Palace. How may I help you?” someone chimed on the other end of the phone. God, was everyone having a good day except for me?

  “This is Rhonda Lee. I just placed an order about five minutes ago,” I said, looking at the menu through blurred eyes. “I need to cancel my order.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” he said, although he didn’t sound the least bit sorry. “Was there a problem with our service?”

  “No problem. I’m just not in the mood for Chinese food.” A solitary tear splashed against the menu. “I think tonight is more of a ‘vanilla ice cream and chocolate cake’ type of evening.”

  I was still in a shitty mood a week after I received the letter.

  Gail, Sarah, and Xavier did their best to console my bruised ego, but I wasn’t interested in “looking on the bright side of things.” I hadn’t taken the SAT four times and kept a straight-A average just to get put on a waiting list.

  The one person that could cheer me up was too busy with basketball practices to offer his condolences. So much for thinking there had been a spark between David and me.

  I was so upset, I found myself snapping at a few of my students at the community center. Bryce even sent me home early one day, saying that maybe I needed a little vacation.

  I didn’t need a damn vacation. I needed a full scholarship to Georgia Tech.

  I woke up on Monday morning fully intending to spray venom at anyone that dared approach me. I got dressed, forced a couple of burnt pieces of toast down my throat, and stormed out of the house. And then, something caught my eye, causing me to momentarily lose my scowl.

  Three red long-stemmed roses lay against my hood.

  I quickly looked around as I walked to the car. I picked up the roses and brought them to my nose. They smelled like they had just been pulled from a garden. Whoever had placed them on my car had left them there this morning.

  I frowned as I looked back at the house. Did Dad leave them for me? He knew I loved roses (not that he ever gave them to me). He was already gone by the time I woke up, so it was possible that he left the roses. Maybe he finally noticed I had been stomping around the house for the past few days.

  Walking a lot softer, I went back into the house and dropped the roses into an empty vase. I sniffed them once more, and I headed back to my car. I didn’t realize I was smiling until I was halfway to school.

  I had almost forgotten about the roses until I sat down at lunch. Xavier was working on a newspaper article, so it was just Gail and Sarah today. As I bit into my sandwich, I caught Sarah staring at me, with a grin on her face that could rival a circus clown.

  I dropped my sandwich. “It was you, wasn’t it?”

  That made her grin even more. “Nope, it wasn’t me.”

  Gail looked up from her textbook. “What are y’all talking about?”

  “Someone left three roses on my car this morning. I thought Dad left them, until Sarah started beaming at me.”

  Sarah faked a look of shock. “I promise, it wasn’t me. I had nothing to do with it.” She winked. “All I did was give him the name of a florist.”

  “You gave the name of a florist to my father?”

  “Your father?” Sarah rolled her eyes. “Don’t you realize today is Valentine’s Day?”

  Valentine’s Day? I was so busy being angry, I didn’t even realize it was February 14th. I shook my head. “So it wasn’t my father? Then who—”

  Suddenly, a heart-shaped light bulb switched on in my head.

  “You should have heard him,” Sarah said. “He was on the phone for fifteen minutes, trying to pick the right type of flower to get you.”

  I felt the corners of my mouth reach to my earlobes. “He was?”

  Sarah leaned over the table. “He was so nervous, he spilled orange juice all over his shirt this morning.”

  Gail cleared her throat, and Sarah and I stopped grinning at each other. “What in the world are you two talking about?”

  “Haven’t you been paying attention?” Sarah asked. “David bought Rhonda three long-stem roses.” She turned back to me. “Please tell me they were red roses.”

  My smile reemerged. “They were red.”

  Sarah squealed and clasped her hands together. “You guys are gonna make such a great couple.”

  I finally forced my mouth into a straight line. “Wait a minute, who said anything about us being a couple?”

  “Come on, Rhonda. The boy brought you red roses on Valentine’s Day. That means he likes you.” Sarah shook her head. “What the hell are they teaching you guys in those advanced classes?”

  I thought back to the roses sitting on my nightstand. “I don’t know. I’m not really looking for a relationship.”

  “Rhonda, you can’t even say his name without turning three shades of purple,” Sarah said. “Just admit it. You like him.”

  I looked at Gail. “What do you think?”

  Gail frowned. “You don’t want to know.”

  Sarah sighed. “Why do you always have to be so damn negative? Don’t you want Rhonda to be happy?”

  Gail looked like she wanted to pummel Sarah. “That’s easy for you to say,” she said to Sarah. “But what happens if David breaks up with her? Will she be happy then?” Gail shot her laser-beam gaze into me. “Or maybe you’ve forgotten how things ended with Christopher.”

  It was amazing how a person could go from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in a matter of seconds. I tried to scrape my bruised ego off the ground. “David’s not like Christopher.”

  “Of course he is,” Gail replied. “And all they want is sex.”

  “That’s not true,” Sarah said.

  Gail laughed sarcastically. “Says the girl that’s four months pregnant.”

  Just like I had moments earlier, Sarah came crashing back down to Earth.

  “You know, it’s pretty damn convenient for you to have a boyfriend, when you’re so hell-bent on ruining other people’s relationships.” Sarah narrowed her eyes at Gail. “You’re not that different than me and Rhonda. Given the right circumstances, you could have been the pregnant one.”

  Gail snorted. “Wanna bet?”

  Sarah slapped her hand against her forehead and looked at me. “How do you stay friends with her? She is the most arrogant, self-righteous person I have ever met.”

  I shrugged. “Believe me, it takes a lot of practice.”

  Gail rolled her eyes and huffed in reply.

  “Rhonda likes David, and David likes Rhonda,” Sarah continued. “Who cares if they sleep together or not? Haven’t you heard of birth control?”

  “No birth control is one-hundred percent effective,” Gail said as if she was reading from a textbook. “She could still get pregnant. And don’t get me started on sexually transmitted diseases.”

  “She could also get hit by a bus as she walked across the street,” Sarah said. “If she loves him—”

  “Love? Who cares about love?” Gail sighed. “Rhon
da, why are you even putting yourself in this situation? This time next year, you’re going to be in college. Even if things work out with David—and I seriously doubt they will—is it worth starting a relationship that’s destined to be over by the end of the summer?”

  I puffed up my chest. “I think it is.”

  “Of course it is,” Sarah gushed. “You and David can make a long-distance relationship work.”

  Gail crossed her arms. “And just where are you going to be next year after graduation, Sarah?”

  I wasn’t going to let Gail beat up on Sarah anymore. “Gail, that’s enough—”

  “No, it’s okay,” Sarah said. “Gail’s right. I’ll be here, raising my child. Maybe I’ll go to one of the local schools part-time, after the baby gets bigger.”

  Gail glanced at me. “That’s a long time to put your life on hold for a bad case of infatuation.”

  These girls were starting to give me a headache. “Just because I date David doesn’t mean I’ll sleep with him.”

  “You can’t honestly believe that.” Gail nodded toward Sarah’s old table. “Sarah, didn’t your brother go out with Stacy Hayes last year?”

  Sarah slowly nodded.

  “For how long?” Gail continued.

  “Maybe a week or two,” Sarah said.

  “And did he sleep with her?”

  “How am I supposed to know—”

  Gail planted her fists on the table. “Did he fuck her or not?”

  Sarah frowned. “Yes.”

  Gail turned to me with a triumphant look on her face. “He slept with her, and then he dropped her.”

  Sarah shook her head. “I didn’t say—”

  “You didn’t have to say it.” Gail continued to stare at me. “Rhonda, do you really want the same thing to happen to you?”

  “Of course not,” I said. “But it won’t happen to me.”

  “How do you know?” Gail asked.

  “Because it happened to me already.”

  Gail looked at me, but didn’t reply. Maybe she had finally run out of words.

  “Thanks for the advice,” I said, “but I don’t think either one of you is qualified to give me pointers on my love life.”

  Sarah smiled. “That’s probably the smartest thing I’ve heard all lunch period.”

  David was leaning against my car as I walked out of the school building. He looked so … perfect. God, I wanted him to be perfect. Was that too much to ask for?

  “Did you like the roses?” he asked as I neared the car.

  “They were beautiful.”

  David smiled. “I hoped you would like them. I wanted to get a card as well, but I couldn’t find—”

  “We need to talk.”

  David’s smile disappeared. Maybe he could hear the concern in my voice.

  I planted myself in front of him. “You know Christopher and I used to date.”

  He nodded.

  “What else do you know?”

  David looked out toward the football field, before turning back to me. “He dumped you.”

  “And … ?”

  “That’s it. Why, is there more?”

  “I slept with him. I lost my virginity to him.”

  David’s gaze darted away from me before I had finished my statement. “I’m not surprised, but that’s not information I need to know.”

  “I want you to know,” I said. I wanted to tell him more, about how Christopher had gotten me pregnant and how he wasn’t man enough to own up to his actions and how I was forced to have an abortion and how much it hurt … but I didn’t.

  “I know you used to date Stacy Hayes. The rumor is that it only took you a week to get her pants off.”

  “Since when did you start paying attention to gossip?”

  “I have to pay attention when it concerns someone I really like.” I dumped my bookbag on top of the hood. “I heard you slept with her, and then broke up with her the following week. Is that true?”

  David’s silence was answer enough.

  I balled my hands and stuffed them in my pockets. “You’re disgusting.”

  “Listen, it wasn’t like that. Yeah, we broke up, but it wasn’t because I slept with her.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Let’s not waste each other’s time. If you’re just getting with me for easy sex, we can end this now.”

  “What?” David shuffled backwards a few steps. “Who said anything about sex? Can’t we at least try a date first?”

  “But don’t you want to have sex?”

  “Of course I do.” He shrugged. “What high school senior doesn’t want to?”

  If I had had the roses with me, I would have flung them in his face. “I should have known Gail was right,” I muttered. “You’re all alike.”

  “What are you talking about?” David asked. “Don’t beat me up for being honest with you. Isn’t that what you want?”

  I paused, and quickly nodded.

  “Like I was saying before, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to have sex eventually. But eventually is a long time away.”

  “But you and Stacy—”

  “That was a mistake. A lapse in judgment. You can’t hold that against me.”

  He was right, I couldn’t. I had made far worse decisions.

  “What’s got you so uptight?” He inched toward me and took my hand in his. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s been a long time since I was in a relationship.” I said, staring at the cracked blacktop. “I just don’t want to get screwed over.”

  “I won’t do that to you. We’ll take things slow.”

  “How slow? You won’t get … frustrated?”

  David winked. “I’ll find another way to relieve stress.”

  He was saying the same things Christopher would have said, but for some reason I believed him. Was I being a fool? Was I walking into a trap?

  Was it worth the risk?

  I finally allowed myself to smile. “I really did like the roses.”

  David smiled back. “I’m glad you liked them, Rhonda the Rhombus.”

  I burst into laughter. “You’re not ever going to let me forget that, are you?”

  “Of course not.” He slightly squeezed my hand before releasing it. “I’d better get to practice. I’m already late.” He began to backpedal toward the school. “I’ll call you tonight, okay?”

  I nodded, and watched him scamper off toward the gym.

  As I grabbed my books and slid into my car, I could feel my entire body tingling. Part of me (okay, all of me) had wanted David to reach out, wrap his arms around me, and plant one of those magical kisses on my lips. If the world was like geometry, he would be a perfect circle, and I’d be a big, fat … rhombus.

  But maybe, just maybe, rhombuses needed love too.

  “Oh my God!” I yelled. “Did you see that shot?”

  David and I were watching the Duke-UNC game. Well, we were watching it, but not together. He sat in his house and I sat in mine. The phone was cradled against my neck, in the same position it had been in every night for the past week.

  “I can’t believe he made that shot,” David moaned. His beloved Blue Devils were down by ten points with less than a minute left.

  “Come on,” I said. “Admit it. That was a great shot. Legendary, even.”

  “Let’s not get carried away. It isn’t like a championship is on the line. The NCAA tournament hasn’t even started yet.”

  “Are you kidding?” I could hear my voice rising. “When’s the last time you’ve seen a shot like that? That was almost as good as Jordan’s jumper over Bryon Russell to win the ’98 NBA championship.”

  David snorted. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize Jordan was allowed to push his defende
r to the floor in order to get an open shot.”

  “Russell didn’t get pushed down. He slipped.”

  “He was fouled.”

  “He lost his footing.”

  “He—”

  “Do you really want to argue about this?” I asked as my mouth curled into a smile. “Or have you forgotten about all the other arguments you lost this week.”

  David was quiet for a second, before he started laughing. “See, that’s what I like about you,” he said. “You’re smart, you’re cute, and you know almost as much about basketball as I do.”

  “Actually, I probably know more about basketball than you do,” I replied. “I just don’t want to show off.”

  He laughed again. “The sad thing is, you’re probably right about that, too.”

  The game went to commercial, and I turned down the television volume. I looked at the unopened textbook in my lap. “I really need to get off the phone. I haven’t gotten a lick of homework done.”

  “Yeah, I have a bunch of homework to do as well,” he replied.

  Then we proceeded to spend twenty more minutes talking about basketball.

  Finally, David conceded defeat on his argument that Magic Johnson’s Lakers were a better team than Jordan’s Bulls. “Okay, for real, I’m getting off the phone,” he said. “Will you be coming by the house this weekend?”

  “I don’t think so. Sarah doesn’t have any math exams coming up for a while, and she’s at the point where she hardly needs my help with her homework.”

  There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. “That’s too bad,” he finally said. “I was really looking forward to seeing you this weekend.”

  I curled the phone cord around my finger. The batteries had long ago died out in my cordless phone. “Just because I’m not tutoring Sarah doesn’t mean we can’t see each other this weekend. We can always go to the movies or something.”

  “You mean like on a date? But I thought you wanted to take things slow.”